Chapter 121: How It All Began
Elián;
"What... happened next?" I ask, and she turns to me with a smile. A bitter smile. The type that betrays the sorrow in her bright, purple eyes.
"Chaos." She simply replies, and the screen vanishes.
"Xavier’s request was the first of many such requests I got..." She says softly, and my brows crease.
"There were others!?" I question her in mortification, and she scoffs.
"You underestimate the darkness in mortal hearts." She says, and her words hit close to home.
"There were thousands more. Some even worse than his. I failed to realise the greed of mortals. It was my duty to protect my children, guide them... bless them. I could see things they couldn’t... and had more wisdom than they did... and still... they lost faith in me." She says, and I stare in silence.
"I guess it’s my fault." She adds, and I raise a brow.
"Your fault? How?" I question, and she turns back to the sky.
"It’s not your fault, people are greedy. I think... It’s a problem for all mortals..." I begin as I look away from her.
Guilt crawls up my skin as I remember some of the prayers I prayed when I was younger. Prayers, I believed were justified. Horrible... bitter prayers I expected answers to...
"Our wants never end. And then when we see a higher power... our selfishness kicks in." I narrate as I look down at my hands and begin to play with my thumbs.
"We serve... and worship... most times not because we really love the deity we serve... but because we expect to be pampered in exchange for our loyalty," I add, and there’s silence.
"Then when... reality is handed to us... We become bitter. Angry... we feel betrayed that our prayers weren’t answered, even though we are the ones who started the betrayal with fake love." I confess, and there’s silence.
I look up at her, and she smiles at me wearily before trailing her fingers across my chin and lifting my face.
"Elián, that selfishness came from Faith. You mortals have faith that we can answer your prayers." She says, and I watch her.
Her hands fall, and her gaze falls to her hands.
"The rules were simple. Deities are not wishing fairies. We weren’t to grant every wish and request. We were only meant to grant important requests. Problems our children could genuinely not solve. But I didn’t listen. I didn’t obey the rules..." She says, and I raise a brow.
She looks up at the sky, and the circular screen appears again.
"I hated how the other gods ran their worlds..." She begins as she flicks her wrist, and the scene changes to an underwater world.
I stare in awe and confusion as mermen and merwomen swim by. They have so many colourful tails and hair.
I turn to look at the goodness Thalyra, wondering what she intends to show me.
"The other gods always seemed so strict. So... distant from their children. They were deities that were feared..." She says as she flicks her wrists again.
"They didn’t seem like parents to their children, and I didn’t like that kind of relationship." She says as the scene changes to creatures I’ve never seen before, cowering and moving about in the dark.
What word is this??
"I wanted something better. A world where my children felt safe with me. A world free, beautiful, colourful." She says as she flicks her wrist again, and the scene changes to Gravemaw. Little children are at the foot of her statue, but there’s no statue there.
Instead, she’s sat in the grass with the little ones. Some are braiding her hair, some are putting flowers in her hair, and some are asleep in her lap.
She looks like a mother with a large, happy family.
"It didn’t last, though. I should have obeyed the rules. They were set for a reason. After making my children believe I would answer their every prayer... they turned to me with prayers I couldn’t dare bring to pass." She speaks, and the screen flickers.
"I started raising cattle before Jahman! How can he already be better than me!? I asked for his secret every time, and he just says it’s by your blessings. As if you don’t bless me too. Set fire to his farm! Just once. I can’t sit back and watch him take over me in the market. He just started!" A man yells at her statue, and my eyes widen in shock.
The scene changes, and this time, it’s a woman.
"My sister will make Kahnul next week. You know I have loved him for as long as I can remember. But he never saw me. He only saw her. Stop their wedding, please. Just... just make her sick for a little while. Or... or make her ugly. So ugly that he finally sees me. Please... I can’t... I can’t sit back and watch my sister get married to the man I love. I know he loves me too, he just needs a chance to see it." She prays in a whisper, and my jaw drops.
The screen flickers again, and this time it’s another woman.
"Goddess Thalyra, I came to you years ago because I was lonely. I told you I wanted someone for myself, and you sent me Chloe. She’s been a dream come true for me. She’s always there when I need her... but now she’s fallen in love. She no longer has my time. We can’t even have a single conversation with her mentioning him. Can you please... Please get rid of him? I want my Chloe back. Just for me. The way we’ve always been." The girl prays, and my skin crawls at how twisted these requests are.
She takes a deep breath, and the screen vanishes.
"There were darker requests. Vicious, wicked requests. I love my children... but I couldn’t grant these requests..." Goddess Thalyra whispers beside me, and the dots connect.
"And when you broke your streak of always answering prayer because of this... they turned on you?" I question, and she nods.
"Many of them. I was then tagged the sleeping god. A myth." She says, and my heart breaks for the way she says it.
The cloud beneath us starts moving, and I instantly move closer to and cling to her in fear. I look over its edge and see that the cloud is descending slowly.
She chuckles softly at my fear as she gently strokes my hair.
"You’d be amazed how quickly things can change." She speaks, and when I look up at her, there are tears in her eyes.
I look away from her as I wonder how bad things got, and how things changed from what it was then... To what it is now.
The cloud finally gets to the ground, and she holds out a hand to me. I take her hand, and we step off the cloud.
My nostrils are welcomed by the scent of flowers, and my ears by the hushed whispers of the people gossiping all around us.
I watch in awe as the cloud zooms back up to the sky, and Goddess Thalyra starts walking with me, following silently behind her.
We are now on a street with people on both sides in front of their huts with lanterns. They’re in small groups chatting, and can’t seem to see the goddess and me.
I stare as the goddess’s long hair sways gently in the night air and glows in gentle divinity.
Just holding her hand, I can sense so much power from her.
Like she has enough strength to crush and pull together universes, yet she has chosen such a simple... humble form.
What happened? How exactly did things change?
She is the mother of premodials, but every time I ever heard or saw anything about them, Primordial were referred to as myths.
How did that come to be?
How much... did she lose?
And why... does it involve me now?
This walk... This tour.... All these revelations... why is she showing them to me?
"Did you hear?" A man’s voice suddenly breaks me out of my thoughts, and I turn to him.
He’s talking eagerly to two other men, and the intrigue on their faces catches my attention.
"The people up north have started worshipping a new goddess." He adds, and my brows crease.
I look up at Goddess Thalyra, who’s still leading me down the street, but she seems unfazed by what I just heard.
"Yes! I heard. She’s called the moon goddess. I heard she’s very different from what we know." The second man responds, and my heart skips a beat at the recognition.
Isn’t that the goddess of werewolves? Like... the one they serve at Howleroot.
"I heard Jigal found out about her during one of his trips to the other planes." The first man says, and my mind races.
Planes!? Like... travelling from this world to another?? Premodials... could do that??
"Right now, he’s gathering all the wolves to the valleys beyond the coast. He wants to start a new kingdom there. I heard he’s named it Howleroot. They will worship this newfound goddess." The second man replies, and my heart skips a beat.
Howleroot??
"I’m scared. Goddess Thlyra may not like this. She gave us the power to travel through planes, and we went and used it to get a new god? What if we invoke her wrath?" The third man finally speaks, and the first man scoffs.
"Invoke her wrath? What can she do? She’s barely answered any of our prayers in so long. She should be glad some of our women are still devoted to her!" The first man spits disdainfully, and my heart skips a beat.
"A god is only as strong as its followers’ devotion. When their faith in me dwindled, my powers..."Goddess Thalyra finally speaks, as she stops walking.
She doesn’t need to complete her words for me to understand. The more their faith in her died... the weaker she became.
"But Queen Cassia and her people still believe in you. Surely all you children couldn’t have turned on you." I speak, and she turns to me with a smile.
Her eyes look lighter now. Like the mere mention of Queen Cassia gladdens her heart. But that sorrow is still there.
"See for yourself." She simply replies, and the huts and people around us disappear.
A new scene unfolds, and my jaw drops at the sight of what is before us. My grip on her hand tightens, and my feet refuse to move as my heart leaps into my throat.